August 21, 2004 I didn't need an alarm to wake up today and I was bright eyed and bushy tailed before I even hit the shower. Breakfast was at the truck stop and I nibbled on toast as other drivers poured over notes and maps. I however, became like other drivers, the truck drivers, silently meditating over my drink, contemplating the miles ahead. I went to the beginner's meeting, which was boring to me as I had firsthand knowledge of rally procedure from volunteering. I quickly found myself becoming agitated at anything that was getting in the way of me, my car and the open road, even time itself. Damn those two and a half hours until my start time. I ended up in my room again napping to the hum of cartoons in my air-conditioned bliss. I woke up with 30 minutes to go, went through a few yoga poses and put on my suit. I was excited, but I worked very hard to keep all of my feelings in check. Excitement and nervousness are quite a potent pair that would threaten my focus if I let them. And focusing was the only thing that I was doing right now. All that mattered was me, Prince, and the road. Times were nothing to me. Other drivers were nothing to me. Even Leon was out of my mind. Speaking of which, he came in looking for me with only 15 minutes until start time. Before we set out to rally, everyone had to go to the drivers' meeting. I listened, but was thinking about other things when the speaker said "he" in reference to all drivers and then a male driver in the front reminded him that there were two female drivers here. Everyone knew Amy B-V, and I heard someone covertly say "The other one's over here!" and suddenly everyone was looking at me! Uh, "Hi?!" Please don't look at me. I just want to drive and I just happen to be a girl. Get over it, please.

Out in the service area, everything was set up fit for a WRC team. I had a five person service crew who had kindly filled my cooler with ice and drinks, washed my car and made sure that I had everything I could possibly want. Well, they couldn't give me a podium finish, but they promised that they'd do everything they could to get me to the finish line. Prince was beautiful, my new Rallye Star sticker sparkled in the sun and my name was on the car, solidifying the reality of what I was about to do. Driving to the first stage, I wasn't nervous but Rob was, as he wasn't to keen on my hyper chatter and kept bringing my mind back to the stage notes. Waiting in line for the first stage to begin was like my first ballet recital-a seemingly endless wait, punctuated by five million trips to the bathroom. Waiting at the end of the line did have its advantages, though. On the way to the bathroom I ran into open class competitors Wolfgang Hoek and Julie Lin who had already finished the first two stages. "It was rough" said Wolfgang. "Way worse than last year," added Julie. "Be careful." Suddenly I was scared a little. Now I couldn't expect to see what I had watched a million times when I had "hitched a ride on Leon's bumper." But I'm adaptive and not too worried. I have a strategy-I think back to all of the WRC races similar to this one and remember that the guys who won Cyprus, Greece and Turkey all chose a steady, cautious pace over balls out speed. I will do the same. Finally it was my turn to go! I looked ahead at the course. Dust and leaves blew over the sandy road-this was a show down at the Off Road Corral! 30 seconds to go-windows up. 15 seconds-I looked ahead, straight 150, 3R sandy 75, 3L maybe? 10 seconds-hand on brake, foot on clutch, foot on gas. Little revs…. Bigger revs… I'm ready and the dots on the clock disappear! I'm gone! I'm not sure whether or not to push it or go easy. The ground is soft and sandy. It pushed me out towards a big tree. The road ahead is twisty and full of cautions-holes, sand, huge rocks! I take it one corner at a time. This is all so overwhelming! Rob got hopelessly lost and I'm too busy to say anything. The road turned rocky and climbed uphill. Suddenly there was a big 2L full of sand and caution tape. I sped Prince up so that he'd have enough momentum to make it around that corner. Although I made it through that corner, we became immediate enemies. The stage ended with a long descent, a tricky 3R and a fast straight. Fun! So it was difficult, scary… and FUN! I mean, the rush was amazing! I was happy to have made it through the first stage intact, although it took awhile for the rush to turn into a big silly grin! I knew all of the control workers and they were very happy to see me. Their support meant a lot to me. The second stage was the worst, as the road had deteriorated badly, alternating between exposed bedrock and hard dirt that had been worn away to expose LARGE rocks and the ever-present ruts on exposed hillsides and over the many yumps at the end. (Yumps are what the Finnish call jumps, as the letter j is pronounced as y in English-Watch Rally Finland for more). This stage claimed the first DNFs (Did Not Finish) of the rally. I kept driving, focusing on my own driving. I loved the end of this stage, and so did Prince as he flew gracefully over the crests of the final yumps. Stage 3 was a repeat of stage 1 and as we made the quick trip back, the enormity of the event struck me-I still had eight stages to go! But I was fine, Prince was well and so was Rob. Stage 3 was okay. We were faster, but I didn't care about the leader board. Rob was better with the notes and I was glad that he was learning as much as I was. After this stage there was a mini-service and Leon ran up to my car looking like a concerned parent. "Well did you like it?" he asked. My silly grin answered that question. Big Tom got me away from my car and instructed me to rest as his technicians began to work on my car. Of course that was the last thing I wanted to do! Stage 4 was stage 1 ran backwards. The track was torn up now. I started to see how my careful, patient strategy had paid off. I wasn't last in the re-seed (although a miscommunication placed the last four cars in the wrong order and I ended up being last in the start order) and several people had DNF'd because of driver errors. I was still in. I was surviving with the fittest. Stage 4 was also stage 6, each run more difficult yet each drive run quicker. I was immediately glad that Leon talked me into doing this rally as the repeated stages were great for learning. I'm happy despite the road conditions and the skid plate knocking against the car and freaking me out! The rest of the stages were a blur. I remember many corners, but everything else got tuned out. After stage 6 there was a dinner break and we went back to the hotel. Once again, Big Tom and his crew provided first rate service. Tom's son Aaron was driving another Toyota and we chatted together, teasing each other about who was the slowest driver. I relaxed back in my room. The final four stages would be run on two famous stages of the Rim of the World Rally-Del Sur and Maxwell. Rim is hard! I nearly broke my street car driving up those stages to volunteer at this year's race…. Leon came back to get me and give me a pep talk, not that I needed one after all of the things he had told me about the wonderful Del Sur stage (Leon holds the record for that stage at 10.00 minutes flat!). Finally, Del Sur was mine for the taking! I jumped back into the car and went to start him. There was no roaring fire, but a dead battery buzz instead! The battery was changed in seconds, but Prince still wouldn't start. Leon and I must have remembered the first drive at the same time because we shouted "The starter motor!" at the same time. We managed to push start Prince, but this time I couldn't turn him off. We made it through the time control just in time! For the first time in this rally, I was worried about my prospects of finishing. I made a right turn into a non-descript dirt road, thinking only of Leon's record run, the rooster tails, the ridge, the flow…. LRLRL water bar… RLRLR…. I had the most amazing rush as I started the stage. The Terratrip had died when the battery was changed, but Rob started to find a good rhythm as I picked my way over the water bars and through the rocks, not even thinking about the drop offs. It was completely amazing. I was in the zone and I felt like a real driver. The water bars turned into Ouininpouja and the off camber parts were New Zealand. When I reached the end, I felt like a WRC driver-I had the high, the concentration, an amazing support team and a little bit more speed than last time. But poor Rob wasn't having such a good time. My wild driving had made him sick! I gave him some water and made sure that he was okay. I felt bad. Coming back up Del Sur was even better! Rob was in the zone, too and I never let up over the ridge section. It was better than drugs. It was better than sex. When we got our timecard back, we saw that we had gained a whole minute! Doubfounded, we searched for answers. The hill. It had to be the hill. The turnaround section of Del Sur is mostly an uphill battle and poor Prince couldn't handle it with only 70 HP! Methinks it is time for a new engine! Despite the disappointment, we were only two stages away from the finish line. Rob tried to smile, but he was really sick. I felt bad and hoped that he was having some fun at least. Everyone was cheering for me at the last service, but I had to run off and visit the restroom and I turned off the car. When I got back everyone gave Prince the okay sign, even though we had to push start him again. I am so happy that I've made it this far! Only two more stages to go. I'm sure that's how Carlos Sainz felt at the Rally of Great Britain in 1999, too. 50 yards out of the timing control area, I lose all power. I push on the gas and nothing's happening. It's not like when my gas pedal bushing or the throttle cable broke on my street car. Everything's there, but nothing's happening. I jump out to check the ignition system to the best of my terrible knowledge. Tony Chavez was driving his daughter's new STi and stopped to help. Another push start didn't work. Leon came over with Big Tom. Up until this minute, the thought of me not finishing had found no place in my mind. All the guys, even some from neighboring crews, came over to help. It was very sweet to see how many people wanted so badly to see me finish. I'm incredibly angry and I decide to take a walk, looking for that Zen-like repose that Markko Märtin always seemed to find whenever his Focus fell ill last season as he was leading the rally. I steeled myself against hearing the death sentence of my rally. I was so focused on not getting angry, or crying or hurting something that I barely heard Leon telling me that it's over and we're going back to service. It's over. I'm not hearing it. The worst was yet to come. My faithful crew tried to hotwire the car, but the problem was fatal. There was an exhaust leak underneath the starter motor that had literally fried all of the wiring in and around the motor, in addition to burning my feet! We wouldn't be going anywhere for the sake of poor Prince's sick heart. The rally officials were swarming like vultures, their offers of a "fun run" were like daggers to my ears after I had passed five people and less then a second away from overtaking a sixth. I had to go and give them our timecards and accept the DNF. It really was over. The ride back to the hotel was long and nearly unbearable. Leon kept telling me how well I had done and so did Rob, but I couldn't help but feel like I had had let everybody down as I had, to my surprise, acquired a small fan base. But I had to tap into my inner works driver and be tough. There would be other rallies. There would be another chance with a healthy Prince. By the time we got back, I was laughing as I recalled Del Sur, yumps, rocks and how consistency and being slow kept me going to the end. A good shower and the best rally meal ever (steak!?!?) ended the night and for once, I fell fast asleep. At the awards the next morning, my archnemesis friend Aaron won something and the organizers recognized me for making it so far with the oldest and most underpowered car all during my first rally. That was pretty sweet. I had so much fun. Nothing really compares to barreling through a nasty dirt road, pushing the limits of you and your car into the red. I'll be back to conquer corners and tame terrain and give everyone a reason to fear one tough 28 year old Corolla! As we drove home I made Leon promise that Prince would get at least a 100 HP heart transplant. Besides, there was a new challenge ahead of us that would require a bit of bite-the Ramada Express International Rally (the only WRC style rally in the U.S.!) with a new hill climb stage. We've got three months to go-gentlemen get to my engine! Back to Diary of a Driver.